Device for locking a container in position on a floor of a flat car



April 21, 1970 d Jan. 22, 1968 FI6.I

Aprll 21, 1970 R. E. NADHERNY 3,507,226

DEVICE FOR LOOKING A CONTAINER IN POSITION ON A FLOOR OF A FLAT CAR Filed Jan. 22, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Apnl 21, 1970 R. E. NADHERNY 3,507,226

DEVICE FOR LOOKING A CONTAINER IN POSITION ON A FLOOR OF A FLAT CAR Filed Jan. 22, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG.6

FIG.5

April 21, 1970 Filed Jan. 22, 1968 FIG] E. NADHERNY DEVICE FOR LOOKING A CONTAINER IN POSITI 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ON A FLOOR OF A FLAT CAR United States Patent 3,507,226 DEVICE FOR LOCKING A CONTAINER IN POSITION ON A FLOOR OF A FLAT CAR Rudolph E. Nadherny, Naperville, Ill., assignor to Illinois Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Jan. 22, 1968, Ser. No. 699,414 Int. Cl. B61d 45/00 US. Cl. 105366 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for locking a shipping container to the floor of a railway fiat car is capable of being swung from a position below the top surface of the floor, where a cover overlies it, to an intermediate position in which the cover can be swung closed and from which the device can be swung to an operative position overlying the closed cover, the device including a bayonet member for entering a container fitting and rotatable from and to locked position therewith.

This invention is an improvement over the construction disclosed in application Ser. No. 691,313 filed Dec. 18, 1967.

Among the objects of this invention are: To provide for locking a shipping container to the floor of a railway fiat car in a new and improved manner; to mount a bayonet member for rotation on a housing and arrange for it to enter a slot in the bottom wall of a hollow bottom container fitting for locking engagement therewith, the housing being mounted for rotation from a retracted inclined position where a hinged cover overlies it to an operative position overlying the cover in closed position; and to provide an aperture in the cover for receiving the lower end of the bayonet member.

According to this invention a rotatable bayonet member for entering and attachment to a bottom container fitting is mounted on the housing which is hinged to one end of a frame that is secured to the underframe of a railway flat car and projects upwardly through an opening in the overlying floor or deck. A cover for the frame is hinged to its other end and is arranged to overlie the housing and bayonet member in the retracted inclined position in the frame. In this position the cover is flush with the top surface of the floor or deck and the car can be used for general purposes. When a container having bottom container fittings is to be transported by the car, the cover is swung upwardly to open position. Then the housing and the bayonet member are swung upwardly to an intermediate position and the cover is swung to the closed position. 'Finally the housing is swung to operative position overlying the cover with the bayonet member extending upwardly for insertion in and locking to the bottom container fitting.

In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective of the floor of a railway flat car arranged to receive detachably one or more container for lading. FIG. 2 is a perspective view, at an enlarged scale, of a corner of the container and the hollow bottom container fitting secured thereto. FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the container locking means in retracted position. FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3, the container locking means being shown by broken lines in the intermediate position. FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the container locking means in the operative position. FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 6-6 of FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 77 of FIG. 5. FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

In FIG. 1 there is illustrated, generally, at 10 a railway fiat car having a floor or deck 11 that is formed by transversely extending floor boards 12. The floor or deck 11 is mounted on a suitable underframe that is indicated, generally, at 13 in FIGS. 4, 7 and 8. The uuderframe 13 includes top flanges 14 on which the underside of the floor or deck 11 rests. The railway fiat can 10 can be employed either for general lading or for carrying rectangular containers one of which is indicated, generally, at 15 in FIG. 1. It will be understood that the container 15 may vary in length while the width remains constant. At each corner of the container 15 there is a hollow bottom container fitting 16 in the form of a metallic casting. It is shown in more detail in FIG. 2. The fitting 16 has a slot 17 in a bottom wall 18 which has an under surface 19 that is flat.

In order to securely hold one or more of the rectangular containers 15 in position on the floor or deck 11 container locking means, indicated generally at 21, are provided. The container 15 is of standard size with the fitting 1-6 at each lower corner. Accordingly, four container locking means 21 are provided for each container 15. As shown in FIG. 1 the container locking means 21 are spaced at various positions in the floor or deck 11 flush with its upper surface in order to accommodate containers 15 of various lengths or to accommodate a number of containers 15.

The details of construction of the container locking means 21 are shown in FIGS. 3-8. The container locking means 21 includes metallic frame means 22 of channel shape and having upstanding sides 23 interconnected by a bottom web 24. The metallic frame means 22 is formed by right and left members of steel plate and they are welded as indicated at 25 in FIGS. 7 and 8 to the underframe 13 or more particularly to the top flanges 14 thereof. A rectangular opening 26 is formed in the bottom web 24 and one edge of it is indicated at 27.

The open upper end of the metallic frame means 22 is arranged to be closed by a cover 28 that may be a malleable iron casting. It is provided with oppositely extending trunnions 29 that are rotatable in openings 30 at one end 31 of the metallic frame means 22. The cover 28 has a center aperture 32 for a purpose that will be apparent presently. Cut away portions 33 are provided in the upstanding sides 23 of the metallic frame means 22 for receiving the juxtaposed sides of the cover 28 in order to permit it to lie flush with the upper surface of the floor or deck 11.

The other end 35 of the metallic frame means 22 is provided with openings 36 for receiving oppositely extending trunnions 37 that are positioned on housing means indicated, generally, at 38 and preferably formed as a malleable iron casting. The housing means 38 includes an extension 39 from which the trunnions 37 extend. Cast integrally with the extension 39 is an upstanding section 40 having an upper planar surface 41 for receiving the under surface 19 of the respective hollow bottom container fitting 16 as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. Also cast integrally with the upstanding section 40 are bosses 42 which are arranged to enter the slot 17 in the bottom wall 18 of the container fitting 16'as shown in 'FIG. 8. The upstanding section 40 has a central aperture 43 for receiving a body portion 45 of a bayonet member 46 that preferably is formed as a malleable iron casting. The bayonet member 46 has a conical head 47 for entering the slot 17. The conical head 47 has vertical sides 48 and laterally extending lugs 49 that are arranged to be rotated into overlying relation with the upper side of the bottom wall 18 as shown by broken lines in FIG. 7. This is the locked position of the bayonet member 46. The lower end 50 of the bayonet member 46 in the operative 3 position is arranged to project into the central aperture 32 in the cover 28.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 the lower end 50 of the bayonet member 46 has vertical sides 51 for receiving furcations 52 of a handle 53 that is provided for rotating the bayonet member 46 between the locked and the unlocked position. A hinge pin 54 extends through the furcations 52 and the lower end 50 of the bayonet member 46. As shown in FIG. the handle 53 is rotatable between angularly spaced walls 55 and 56 that are formed integrally with the housing means 38. Here the handle 53 is shown in the unlocked position in which the bayonetmember 46 is positoned such that the conical head 47 and laterally extending lugs 49 can enter the slot 17 and position the under surface 19 of the container fitting in supporting position on the upper planar surface 41 of the housing means 38.

For locking the handle 53 in either position slots 57 are provided in the walls 55 and 56 for receiving detents 58 which extend from opposite sides of the handle 53 having head portions 59 at their distal ends. The handle 53 can be rotated vertically about the hinge pin 54 to lift the detents 58 out of the slots 57 in order to have the head portions 59 clear the walls 55 and 56.

As shown in FIG. 7 the lower edge 60 of the handle 53 is sldable over the upper surface of the cover 28. The handle 53 is rotatable in an opening 61 that is formed in the extension 39 of the housing means 38.

When the railway fiat car is used for general purpurposes, the covers 28 are closed with the housing means 38 and bayonet member 46 in the retracted or inclined position shown in FIG. 4. Here it will be observed that the extension 39 engages the edge 27 of the rectangular opening 26 and thus the assembly is held in this position. When the railway fiat car 10 is prepared for use with one or more containers 15, the covers 28 of the container locking means 21 are swung to the open position as indicated by the arrows 62 in FIG. 4. The open position of the cover 28 is shown hereby broken lines. Next the housing means 38 and bayonet member 46 are swung, as indicated by arrows 63, to an intermediate position which is illustrated by broken lines. Then the cover 28 is swung to the closed position and the housing means 38 and bayonet member 46 are swung to the operative position shown in FIGS. 5, 7 and 8. Here the housing means 38 overlies the upper surface of the cover 28 and the lower end 50 of the bayonet member 46 extends into the aperture 32 in the cover 28. If desired, the fit between the lower end 50 of the bayonet member 46 and the central aperture 32 in the cover 28 can be such that the latter is stressed in shear on the application of acceleration and deceleration forces to the container 15. After the container is properly positioned on the container locking means 21, the handle 53 of each container locking means 21 is raised to disengage the respective detent 58 from its slot 57 and then it is rotated through 90 to rotate the laterally extending lugs 49 into overlying relation with respect to the upper side of the bottom wall 18 of the respective container fitting 16. The detent on the opposite side of the handle 53 in its locked position is positioned on the slot 57 in the wall 56 with the head portion 59 in locked position. In order to remove the locked container 15, it is necessary to ro tate each of the handles 53 from the locked to the unlocked position.

With a view to preventing sidewise movement of the cover 28 with respect to the frame means 22, the cover 28 has depending flanges 64 cast integrally therewith. As shown in FIG. 8, the flanges 64 are juxtaposed to the inner sides of the distal edges of the upstanding sides 23 of the frame means 22.

What is claimed as new is:

1. Container locking means for the floor of a railway flat car carried by an underframe, said container locking means being arranged to secure to said floor one or more containers each having at least one hollow bottom container fititn-g with a slot in its bottom Wall, said container locking means comprising:

frame means adapted to be secured to said underframe and below the surface of said floor,

a cover having an aperture and hinged to one end of said frame means and swingable from a closed position overlying said frame means and flush with said surface of said floor to an open position,

housing means hinged to the other end of said frame means and swingable from a stored position below said surface of said floor, when said cover is in said open position, to an intermediate position in which said cover can be swung to said closed position and from which said housing means can be swung to an operative position overlying said cover in said closed position,

bayonet means rotatably mounted on said housing means and having a locking head at its upper end with outstanding lug means for entering said slot in said container bottom fitting and having a lower end extending into said aperture in said cover in the operative position of said housing means, and

means for rotating said bayonet means to move said lug means into and out of overlying relation with said bottom wall of said bottom container fitting.

2. Container locking means for the floor of a railway flat car carried by an underframe, said container locking means being arranged to secure to said floor one or more containers each having at least one hollow bottom container fitting with a slot in its bottom wall, said container locking means comprising 1 frame means adapted to be secured to said underframe and below the surface of said floor,

a cover hinged to one end of said frame means and swingable from a closed position overlying said frame means and flush with said surface of said floor to an open position,

housing means having a planar surface on which the bottom surface of said bottom wall of said container fitting is adapted to rest and hinged to the other end of said frame means and swingable from a stored position below said surface of said floor, when said cover is in said open position, to an intermediate position in which said cover can be swung to said closed position and from which said housing means can be swung to an operative position overlying said cover in said closed position,

bayonet means rotatably mounted on said housing means and having a locking head at its upper end with outstanding lug means for entering said slot in said container bottom fitting,

means for rotating said bayonet means to move said lug means into and out of overlying relation with said bottom wall of said bottom container fitting, and

bosses integral with said housing means and extending upwardly from said planar surface on opposite sides of said bayonet means for entering said slot in said bottom wall of said container fitting to locate said container fitting on said housing means and limit relative horizontal movement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS DRAYTON E. HOFFMAN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 248-119, 361 

